Greece's Next Likely Leader Faces Tall Odds

Wall Street Journal
June 17, 2012

Antonis Samaras, the leader of Greece's victorious New Democracy party, has made a fast turnaround from Europe-bashing populist to the continental power brokers' preferred choice to lead Greece.

Voters in Greece Sunday handed New Democracy the edge in a close race with no likely outright majority winner, according to early projections. But as the leader of the top-finishing party in the fractured poll, Mr. Samaras will get the first shot at attempting to form a government and is likely to be prime minister.

Few jobs in politics are as unforgiving as being Greece's prime minister right now. But seizing the office would realize a long-held ambition for a man who was a conservative darling two decades ago before being exiled from the party, and then staging a remarkable comeback.

Now, the question for the American-educated politician from a prominent Greek family is whether he will fare better than the last American-educated politician from a prominent Greek family to sit in the chair: His old Amherst College roommate George Papandreou.

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